Sunday marked my first official race on Barr Trail. As I mentioned in my previous post, I plan on running the Pikes Peak Ascent next August. Not wanting to go in blindly, I signed up to do some Ascent training with a friend of mine who is running it this year. I also knew the training would be good for the upcoming Wild West Relay. One thing led to another, and before we knew it, we had signed ourselves up for the Barr Trail Mountain Race. We figured it would be a nice training run and give us both an idea of what it is like to run on the mountain with several hundred other runners - something neither one of us had ever done.
In preparation for the race, I tried to be good little runner over the weekend. We had a birthday party to go to on Friday night, which took place at my favorite local pizza joint (Back East Bar & Grill), where my favorite local cover band (Arch Hooks) was playing. I declared myself designated driver early on, to keep myself from getting my party drink on. Saturday consisted of swimming and relaxing at the pool with the girls and getting a little afternoon rest before doing a little carb loading at dinner. I also drank, drank, drank (water!) all weekend - knowing Sunday was going to be a scorcher.
The 5am wake-up call wasn't too bad. I loaded up all my gear in the car, grabbed some peanut butter toast and headed over to pick up my friend for the drive to Manitou. After several pit stops on the way to the starting line, we picked a spot in the middle of the runners and off we went. I started off easy, as I am notorious for going out too hard at the start of races and burning out too soon. This is not the type of course you want to do that in. We had completed a handful of training runs over the course, so I was completely prepared for the terrain and knew the landmarks pretty well. I felt strong on the way up to Barr Camp but was very happy to see the .5 mile marker and shortly thereafter, the turnaround point at just under 6.3 miles. It sure would have been nice to have one of the yummy Barr Camp pancakes at this point, I had burned through my PB toast and felt hungry!
Coming down the trail is quite tricky. The legs sure loved the change in elevation but after the crash and burn I took in an earlier training run, I'm still a little gun-shy on going all out down the trail. The temps had already started to get quite toasty at this point also, so I was slowing to drink my fluids a little more often that I usually do on the way down. Note: Very happy I carried my own fluids, don't think I could have gotten by on just the aid stations. I made it down in just under an hour, to finish the course in 2:46:58. I had told my running buddy before the race that I would be sorely disappointed if I didn't finish in the 3:30 cutoff time to get the t-shirt. Barring any major catastrophe, I didn't see this being a problem since all of our training runs have been under 3:00. I told him I would be very pleased with sub-3:00 and ecstatic with sub 2:50. Needless to say, I was grinning ear to ear as I pumped my arms to make it up Hydro Street to the finish line. Yes - after dropping roughly 4,000 feet of altitude over 6 miles, the course finishes on a steep uphill grade. Nothing like a further shock to the legs to wrap things up!
I loved this race! One of the first things out of my mouth after finishing was, "I want to do this one again". Now that I know what is involved, I want to challenge myself to improve. Yet another reminder of why I run.
2 comments:
Wow, that sounds awesome. i really hope to find a group to join or some different things to try this fall or next spring. It's a challenge out here in the sticks though - if we lived in the city or even Alpharetta I would have many more choices. Great job on your time!
I only have one word...WOW!
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